Considerable interest in the 2021 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu is centred on the personality of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), his rise to power, and whether he has the ability to lead his party to a win.
Although the AIADMK-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance did face the electorate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls under his leadership, his real test comes in the assembly elections, as the stakes are higher for the party. The AIADMK fared poorly in the parliamentary polls, winning only one of the 39 seats up for grabs. However, Palaniswami claimed that the people stood by his government as the AIADMK did much better in the assembly by-elections held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections, winning 9 of the 22 assembly seats on offer. Nine was exactly the number the AIADMK needed to stay on in power after the government was earlier reduced to a minority as the party sought to disqualify 18 of its MLAs for supporting VK Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran, then seen as a rebel.
Thereafter, Palaniswami could strengthen his position in the party as the government was all set to complete the remainder of the term without a hitch. Palaniswami now claims that he was successful in providing a stable government despite odds and that this was an achievement by itself, threatened as it was by the toppling bid of opposition leader MK Stalin of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Palaniswami also goes around the state claiming he is a farmer and refers to the waiver of farm loans to the tune of Rs 12,300 crore. Stalin questions his farmer credentials by pointing out that the AIADMK government voted for the agri laws in Parliament that are opposed by agitating farmers in the states along the Delhi border.
In the past few weeks, Palaniswami has tried to shore up the image of his government by announcing a number of welfare schemes, mostly freebies, like six free gas cylinders, monthly payment of Rs 1,500 to housewives, write-off of farm loans by cooperatives, and so on. However, the main opposition DMK too has come up with a series of offers in its election manifesto. It is a shower of freebies either way for the electorate.
The spotlight is also on how Palaniswami assumed the post of chief minister after the demise of J Jayalalithaa. Palaniswami has referred to his humble beginnings, his background as a ‘farmer’, and how he was elected by his party MLAs, and not by Sasikala, as was charged by Stalin. The DMK president, Stalin, has said that Palaniswami prostrated at the feet of Sasikala, at the party meeting in 2017, when she nominated him as chief minister. Sasikala herself could not take up the post due to a Supreme Court judgment in a disproportionate assets case, which resulted in Sasikala going to a Bengaluru prison. Before leaving the resort, Sasikala nominated Palaniswami for the CM post. On the other hand, the DMK has referred to video shots of Palaniswami ‘sliding’ across the floor to prostrate before Sasikala and described it as a ‘crawl’.
Palaniswami has retorted to the ‘crawl’ charge, said he was not a snake or a lizard to crawl, and maintained that he was elected by the MLAs.
The videos of the Sasikala meeting with Palaniswami and other party MLAs, as also the current scenes of Palaniswami and Stalin have gone viral on social media.
Palaniswami has chosen to hit back at the DMK stating that Stalin’s father M Karunanidhi became chief minister in 1969 after the death of CN Annadurai through ‘shortcuts’. Stalin, in his defence, says he was elected party president after almost 50 years working in the DMK, in a step-by-step rise, from MLA, mayor, minister, deputy chief minister, party treasurer, working president, and finally to president.
In the absence of DMK stalwart Karunanidhi, who strode like a colossus in the state, and Jayalalithaa, a charismatic leader of the AIADMK, Palaniswami and Stalin are striving to fill what political observers believe is a ‘vacuum’.
(R Rangaraj is a veteran journalist and historian. Views expressed are personal.)
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